


Don't Let Me Down

by BurritoBadger



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Happy, Kanto Region, Pokemon, Pokemon Battle, Pokemon Fanfiction, Pokemon Gym Leader(s), Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, bulbasaur is awesome, pokemon gym battle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 02:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18379232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurritoBadger/pseuds/BurritoBadger
Summary: Harriet has battled her way through the Viridian Forest to Pewter City, and now faces her first Gym Leader. Is she a good enough match for Brock?***This is a short one-shot I wrote back in 2014 but thought it deserved a life. Let me know through kudos and comments if you like it!





	Don't Let Me Down

The door slides open and a massive room expands before Harriet. A small tug of fear questions if she can really do this, but she squashes it with a clenched fist and a frown. She’s ready. She strides into the room, determined not to feel intimidated. Lights spark into action from her movement, revealing a vast battlefield with boulders ranging from the size of her fist to the size of her house.

“I’m Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader. My rock-hard willpower and true-grit determination are evident even in my Pokémon.” A young man with short, spikey brown hair walks towards Harriet across the dirt field. He stands at an easy distance from her and it’s clear to see he owns this place. “So, you’ve come to challenge me?”

“That’s right! I’m Harriet from Pallet Town and I’ve come for a badge!” Harriet yells at him. Her brother told her she’d never get past Brock, but with all the training she went through in the Viridian Forest she knows she can’t fail.

“You’re going to challenge me knowing that you’ll lose?” He chuckles at Harriet which makes her frown deepen. “That’s the Trainer’s honour that compels you to challenge me. Fine, then! Show me your best!”

Brock stands at the opposite end of the field. Harriet watches as he selects two Pokéballs and leaves the other four to one side.

“As I am the first Gym Leader you’re fighting I can only use up to two Pokémon, but you are allowed to use up to six.”

It irks Harriet that Brock can tell he’s her first Gym battle, but she lets the insult become part of her inner fire. She came prepared.

“Geodude, go!”

“Come on, Pikachu!” Harriet wastes no time in throwing her Pokéball onto the battlefield where a yellow mouse Pokémon, not half a metre tall, with long ears and a lightning bolt tail bursts from its enclosure. Brock’s Geodude is a hovering boulder with arms and big, clenched fists. “Pikachu, _thundershock_ now!” the electric mouse shoots its lightning at Geodude. Harriet has seen her Pikachu take down every kind of Pokémon in Viridian Forest with this move but when the lightning attack finishes, Geodude is unscathed.

“Looks like you didn’t study before coming here,” says Brock. Is he bored of her already? “Electric attack types have no effect against rock-type Pokémon. How do you not know that?” Harriet’s embarrassment flares up as anger inside her.

“Pikachu, return,” Harriet points the Pokéball at Pikachu who materializes back into the Pokéball. “Ratatta, go!” A small but vicious rat replaces Pikachu’s spot in the arena. “Ratatta, _quick attack_!” The rat runs at Geodude and although it inflicts damage on the rock Pokémon, it is minimal. Harriet feels some of her fire start to go out. Will nothing affect Brock’s rock-type Pokémon well enough to defeat him?

“Geodude, _tackle_!” Brock’s Pokémon charges forward and rams into Ratatta, knocking it over but not making it faint.

Harriet uses _quick attack_ again because it is the only attack move the rat knows, but Geodude’s _tackle_ is more powerful and by the third time using it, Ratatta faints.

Harriet sends out Butterfree in Ratatta’s place.

“OK, Butterfree, use _confusion_!” The giant butterfly’s psychic attack is the first thing to work well against rock. “Yes!” Harriet’s elation at the breakthrough is mimicked by Butterfree’s somersault.

Geodude’s _tackle_ is average against Butterfree so Harriet is able to take it down with only two more moves.

“Looks like you’re learning. Watch your Pokémon’s HP carefully, though.” Brock returns his fainted Pokémon and throws his next one into battle. A giant rock serpent spills onto the arena. Over eight metres tall, it leers down at the butterfly. Harriet is momentarily paralysed at the sheer size of the rock creature. “Onix, _rock-tomb_ now!”

Harriet’s Butterfree is slammed into the ground, buried by boulders. The great screen on the arena’s wall shows Butterfree’s HP fall to zero. Harriet has three Pokémon left but can’t use one of them. She shudders to think how fast her meek Bulbasaur will get flattened by Onix. He would only be used as a last resort.

“Go, Pidgey!”

“Onix, _tackle_!” Onix slams into the bird.

“Pidgey, _gust attack_!” The bird flaps its wings to send a burst of wind at Onix. It isn’t very effective against rock. Harriet’s chagrin is apparent.

“Onix, _rock-tomb_! You have to think about your Pokémon’s moves and their type strengths. Wind would never be effective against a boulder.” Brock’s Onix crushes Harriet’s Pidgey.

Her fire doused, Harriet sends Beedrill to face Onix. She is sure the metre-tall wasp with giant stings on its two forelegs will not be good enough to defeat Brock’s Onix. The bug Pokémon glances back at Harriet as it awaits her command.

“Your Beedrill looks subdued. Does this mean you’re giving up?”

Harriet looks up at Brock, not ready to give in but not hopeful of winning anymore.

“If you don’t believe in your Pokémon, it won’t believe in itself. Your Beedrill needs to know you trust it.” Brock’s words don’t mean anything to Harriet; Beedrill is a Pokémon, it can’t understand her.

“Onix, _tackle_!”

“Beedrill, _fury attack_!”

Onix crashes into Beedrill who retaliates by cutting into Onix with its stingers. It isn’t very effective.

“Beedrill, _poison sting_!”

Beedrill jabs its sting into Onix and the beast shudders. The move itself isn’t very effective but Onix is poisoned.

“Onix, _rock-tomb_ now!”

Boulders crash down onto Beedrill.

“Just do your best,” Harriet murmurs to the last Pokéball before she throws it onto the field. “Go, Bulbasaur!”

A solid Pokémon, not a metre tall, bursts from the Pokéball. It is a patchy green and almost looks like a miniature triceratops without horns, with a plant bulb taking up most of its back. He is the first Pokémon Harriet ever got. She loves him, but his friendly face and cuddly nature make her want to baby him rather than make him fight.

Onix is hurt by the poison inside him, reducing his HP a little.

“Bulbasaur, let’s start with _leech seed_!”

“ _Baubasaar_!” Cries the Pokémon in response as the bulb on his back opens and seeds shoot out to fall around Onix.

“Onix, _bind_!” Onix uses its tail to pick up Bulbasaur and begin crushing it.

“No!” Harriet gasps. She should never have sent Bulbasaur out to fight! She can almost feel the damage being done to Bulbasaur as though she were the one being crushed.

“Good job, Onix!”

Onix is hurt again by the poison, and some of his life is sucked out and transferred to Bulbasaur through the leeching seeds.

_If you don’t believe in your Pokémon, it won’t believe in itself_. It’s now or never. She clenches her fists and yells, “Ok, Bulbasaur, let’s do this: _vine whip,_ now!”

Long plant tendrils shoot from Bulbasaur’s bulb and smack Onix. Harriet can hardly breathe as she watches the small creature being squeezed by the giant rock serpent, yet his cries are not weak but determined. His vines whip Onix at break-neck speed: they are not the moves of a fragile Pokémon.

Onix roars as the vines hit him, releasing Bulbasaur who drops deftly to the ground. Onix’s HP falls faster than Bulbasaur and Harriet sees it hit zero on the screen.

Victorious relief floods Harriet as she lets out a dry sob. Bulbasaur turns towards her, his mouth open in what can only be a smile. He runs at her and leaps into her arms, nuzzling his face against hers.

Brock walks across the arena to them, smiling.

“Well done, Harriet, you learnt to trust your Pokémon. As proof of your victory, I confer on you this,” Brock holds out a grey, octagonal badge. “The official Pokémon League Boulderbadge.”

Harriet puts Bulbasaur down as she takes the badge from Brock. It is heavier than she expected. She looks up at his face. She’s done it!

“Thank you, Brock.”

“There are all kinds of Trainers in this huge world of ours. You appear to be very gifted so let me make a suggestion: go to the Gym in Cerulean City and test your abilities there.”

Harriet turns to leave with Bulbasaur at her side,

“I won’t let you down!”


End file.
